Christ the Creator of the World

God who created all things through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:9)

St Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202AD) further explicates St Paul’s teaching that Jesus is the Creator of the world:

“The rule of the Truth that we hold is this: There is one God Almighty, who created all things through His Word; He both prepared and made all things out of nothing, just as Scripture says: For by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth (Psalm 33:6).  And again: All things were made through Him and without Him was made not a thing (John 1:3).  From this all nothing is exempt.

Now, it is the Father who made all things through Him, whether visible or invisible, whether sensible or intelligible, whether temporal for the sake of some dispensation or eternal.  These He did not make through Angels or some Powers that were separated from His thought.  For the God of all things needs nothing.  No, He made all things by His Word and Spirit, disposing and governing them and giving all of them existence.  This is the one who made the world, which indeed is made up of all things.  This is the one who fashioned man.

This is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, above whom there is no other God, nor a Beginning, nor a Power, nor a Fullness.  This is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”  (AGAINST THE HERESIES (Book 1), pp 80-81)

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